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Saturday, November 5, 2016

Weekend Open Thread

Welcome to what might be the last weekend on Earth!
No matter what happens, this is going to be a historic week. There's a presidential election, we're coming off our most successful #ScaryMovieMonth ever, Tyler Perry's Boo! A Madea Halloween has claimed the top spot at the box office for two weeks in a row. What's everybody watching for the last few days before the rapture?

44 comments:

I was so happy I didn't have to watch anymore horror movies. So I caught up on all the horror TV I've been missing American Horror Story, Channel Zero: Candle Cove, Black Mirror and The Exorcist. All of which have not only exceeded expectations but were legitimately pretty great. Hopefully, next week won't be as terrifying. There's always France, I like wine and the idea of summers off seems ok.

I normally really dislike 3D. Star Trek Beyond in 3D was a particularly terrible experience because the movie was way too dark in parts to be able to see anything with the glasses on. Didn't have any such issues with Dr. Strange and the 3D really worked with what they were doing with the effects.

Really really liked Dr Strange! In retrospect I think they rushed over a few things (no Marvel movie has done the "before" stuff better than Iron Man) but I had a great time. It was really refreshing seeing a Marvel movie that wasn't the least bit beholden to the rest of the MCU. I also reeeally dug the action and they did a great job of topping themselves as the movie went on. No spoilers but I also thought the final confrontation was FANTASTIC. My fave since GotG :)

It's a gloomy and angry movie, but not a gorefest by any stretch. It's one of those grimy New York character pieces/meditations on violence, and very in character with the rest of Abel Ferrara's filmography. I wouldn't bother with it on a big screen seeing how easy it is to get a hold of.

After a couple of days break I watched Doctor Strange, which I liked but didn't love and I'm not entirely sure why. I can't fault the movie. The visuals and cast are great I laughed. Maybe I just wasn't in the mood or I have finally hit the super hero wall.

Been watching a whole bunch of different stuff but just watched Hudson Hawk for the first time, and really liked it. It's a mess but an easy mess to revel in. Willis and Aiello have amazing chemistry, I liked Andy MacDowell in it. It's a lunatic of a movie but so much fun.

With a lot of De Palma talk floating around lately, I've felt guilty for never seeing some of his praised works. This week I watched Blow Out and Phantom of the Paradise, and I could watch them both again right now. Really had a great time with both of them for completely different reasons. Hopefully I'll have the time and $$$ soon to pick up some of his other titles that I've missed.

The unseasonably warm October didn't put me into the Halloween spirit as much as I would have liked. I still need my horror fix so I'll probably check out a lot of the new stuff on Shudder. Also it's a good time to catch up on Criterion movies on Hulu since they're going away after November. I still have lots of Fellini, Truffaut, and Kurosawa in my queue. Does anybody have any other Criterion recommendations?

I'm doing much the same thing with Criterion on Hulu. Obviously you can't go wrong with any of Kurosawa's stuff. I really enjoyed Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal when I watched it earlier this year. House (1977) a.k.a. Hausu is also worth a watch if you haven't seen it yet. The Zatoichi movies are pretty fun. If nothing else I'd say at least watch the first one. I watched enough of Charlie Chaplin to know that I'm just never going to be into his movies. Equinox is entertaining, especially if you like Evil Dead. Sisters and Cronos if you haven't seen either of those. Tempted to say Haxan but I actually like the edited version better (which is on Prime). I've also got a fondness for The Scarlet Pimpernel.

It's one of the most ineptly directed and written films I've ever seen. It's the most simplistic story yet it's still handled in such a convoluted way that it's almost incomprehensible. If anyone wants to still see it, I had to order the Region 2 Japanese Import from Amazon Japan (Kudos to them btw, ordered from Amazon Japan and it arrive 3 days later!) as it is completely understandable why there is no US distribution for this.

Saw Jim Jarmusch's Stooges documentary, Gimme Danger. Absolutely loved it. I found it to be a very moving portrait of one of the greatest bands ever. A highlight was the sound editing. All of the live performance footage stays married to its original audio as opposed to trying to mix and match. It's a little detail that ends up feeling like a huge departure from the normal rock doc. Iffy and the band are awesome interview subjects and the whole thing feels like a loving affirmation of the power of art. Loved it.

I saw Doctor Strange on Friday. About halfway through I kinda gave up on it. Cumberbatch was more irritating than charming, none of the characters had any real chemistry, the humor didn't work for me (especially anything related to Wong), and it felt like a missed opportunity to do something weird and philosophical.

I wasn't impressed with Giacchinno's score either. I feel like something along the lines of Philip Glass or maybe some Gamelan-style rhythmic stuff would have been better for the subject matter. Or you could get cheesy with it and do a psych rock thing.

The movie keeps talking about the need to respect natural law, but we don't really see anything go wrong when Strange breaks the natural law. Breaking the rules seems to work out just fine for him in the end and it robs the warning of its drama and dread.

Thank you, Corona. I agree 100% especially with your first paragraph. Worst attempts at humor by far in a Marvel flick...be who's gonna be funny? Cumberbatch? Tilda? Ejiofor? Nope. I did not connect with any of it. I'd rather watch Suicide Squad ten times in a row.

I watched Ant Man again recently and while it's the easy movie to dismiss from Marvel, since he's not a particularly notable character, I think it was much better than Doctor Strange. I don't know why they felt the need to add quips and jokes to Strange, with Ant Man it makes sense, no need to play that character serious, but Doctor Strange's perception of reality is collapsing around him which is a scary thing to face.

They made a movie about opening and expanding the mind of the main character, and did little to nothing to open and expand the minds of the audience.

Just finished watching Deepwater Horizon at the local theater. What an intense movie! I'm enjoying Peter Bergs work more and more. Bought Star Trek Beyond on Blu Ray/DVD and WOW was it great. Definitely enjoyed the separating of the crew for much of the movie only to bring them back at the end, uniting to accomplish a common goal(hear that two party system?)

Primary Colors was the film I watched this past week. A surprisingly funny political satire with John Travolta doing his best Bill Clinton impression followed by equally solid work from director Mike Nichols and co-stars Emma Thompson, Kathy Bates, Adrian Lester and Billy Bob Thornton among others.

I saw The Girl on the Train - I had some old college friends in town and, because we used to go to at least a movie a week our first year of university and saw pretty much everything whether it was a "theatre movie" or not, we decided it would be a good throwback to see something like this. We weren't mad we saw it or anything but it was pretty mediocre. I'd probably give it however many Riskes would equal like a C-. The best part was seeing the trailer for the new M. Night movie, Split - holy crap that looks bonkers. It looked like a fake movie trailer on an SNL hosted by James McAvoy. I can't wait.

I thought The Accountant was ridiculous but The Girl on the Train is RIDICULOUS. I had a little bit of fun with it because it's so trashy and paperback. It exists on another planet only slightly resembling Earth. Also 1.5 Riskes is C-/D+ so we're right there, man!

Nice - also, not sure how you reacted, but you know you're probably the only guy in the theatre who just watched 31 straight days of horror movies when you gleefully guffaw at the extra couple twists (if you catch my drift) at the end while every one else is gasping.